There's so many ways to mitigate scalpers, but do you think companies like Sony have any incentive to implement any of these if they're still selling out of units? What do they gain?
If anything, Sony will see that given the demand, they could probably sell the consoles at a higher price in the future.
- Customers buying more games (and sending more money to Sony) instead of putting money in scalpers' pockets (in addition to the commission fees pocketed by eBay etc.)
- New players who can't afford the scalpers' excessive markup but might become long-term PlayStation customers if they could just find a console at MSRP
I almost wish Sony had offered PS+ subscribers the chance to preorder a console that would be factory locked to their PSN ID for a year or something, sort of like a phone upgrade.
Fortunately Sony seems to have a better availability track record than (cough) Nintendo, so I expect that the supply will improve fairly quickly. Also since many transition games work on PS4 as well as PS5, there's not a huge downside to waiting.
Scalpers won't buy more games on average than actual players, and console manufacturers make money on games and online sales, not the console itself, it being a loss leader in many instances in video game history.
Except they won’t. Instead nobody will pay the exorbitant markup, so the scalpers sit on them until it’s clear they won’t make a profit, then return them all to the reseller. So 80% of the first units will remain unused in-box for a few months.
8 comments
[ 684 ms ] story [ 2627 ms ] threadWhat other methods can be used to deter this?
A captcha or three?
Instead of purchasing an item they purchase a place in a pool, they pick randomly from the pool and refund the rest?
Verify individuals ahead of time?
Some kind of virtual queue?
There's gotta be a better way to deter or stop this.
If anything, Sony will see that given the demand, they could probably sell the consoles at a higher price in the future.
Possibly the following:
- Happier customers
- Additional positive news coverage and better PR
- Customers buying more games (and sending more money to Sony) instead of putting money in scalpers' pockets (in addition to the commission fees pocketed by eBay etc.)
- New players who can't afford the scalpers' excessive markup but might become long-term PlayStation customers if they could just find a console at MSRP
I almost wish Sony had offered PS+ subscribers the chance to preorder a console that would be factory locked to their PSN ID for a year or something, sort of like a phone upgrade.
Fortunately Sony seems to have a better availability track record than (cough) Nintendo, so I expect that the supply will improve fairly quickly. Also since many transition games work on PS4 as well as PS5, there's not a huge downside to waiting.